1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to communication systems that service voice, data and multimedia communications; and more particularly to a personal mobility system that operates in conjunction with a plurality of heterogeneous communication networks to route voice, data and multimedia communications to a user via one or more of the plurality of communication systems based upon a personal identifier of the user.
2. Related Art
Voice communication systems are well known in the art. Examples of voice communication systems include the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), cellular wireless communication systems and other systems that are primarily intended to service voice traffic. Data communication systems are also well known in the art. Examples of data communication systems include the Internet, Local Area Networks (LANs), Wide Area Networks (WANs), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks, among others.
While voice communication systems are primarily intended to service voice traffic, they may also be adapted to service data traffic. Likewise, data communication systems, while primarily intended to service data traffic may also be adapted to service voice traffic (e.g., Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony). In 1996, for the first time in history, the volume of data traffic on carrier backbone networks exceeded the volume of voice traffic. This historical event signaled the fundamental transformation from networks dominated by voice to networks dominated by data. Today, data traffic is growing 10 times faster than voice traffic--more than 30 percent growth per year for data traffic versus three percent growth per year for voice traffic.
From Internet telephony to electronic commerce, the Internet has reshaped the concept of telecommunications. Today, Internet telephony, which includes both Internet voice and fax services, is believed to be the fastest growing type of service on the Internet. The electronic commerce marketplace is already becoming the commercial playing field of choice or an important component of operations for book sales, airline reservations, business and consumer financial services, messenger services, and communications systems, among other areas of commerce.
The convergence of telephony and the Internet is the convergence of two worlds, the dialtone world of straight-line connection for voice and the webtone world of multimedia, multi-point connectivity. Overall, the trend in communications is about being able to reach anywhere, anytime, in any mode, and much more. The full power of webtone is projected to be realized by the integration of an incompatible mix of different access networks, such as data, telephone, enterprise, wireless, satellite, cable TV, and other networks, through the Internet Protocol backbone.
However, as the availability of communications increases, the difficulty of operating the resultant communication systems increases. For example, a single user may access the Internet, the PSTN, a cellular network and other networks in a single day. The single user may be at his or her desk for part of the day, be at home a portion of the day, be on the road for a portion of the day, and be at still other locations during parts of the day. Thus, it is extremely difficult to determine how to reach the user by voice and/or to send data communications to the single user.
Because the single user may be accessing any of these dissimilar networks at any given time, it is difficult, if not impossible to direct a communication to the single user that will reach the single user. Particularly, if an immediate conversation is required, it is difficult to determine a particular number to dial or address to employ to immediately reach the user.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a system and method of operation that assists in properly establishing communications with a user that employs multiple, heterogeneous networks.